Tackling the Gender Gap
Tackling the Gender Gap
New Report Identifies the Barriers to Women Taking Senior Roles
A new report commissioned by the Asssociation of British Insurers has outlined the difficulties and challenges facing women trying to secure top roles in the insurance and financial sector.
‘Tackling the gender seniority gap: what works for the insurance and long-term savings industry’ concludes that the biggest reason is working patterns associated with maternity, which impact on employees’ ability to advance.
The report highlights the failure of measures and interventions currently used by companies to counteract possible bias in candidate consideration, such as training and suggests that the situation could be better addressed via organisational redesign and greater use of structured interviews.
Amanda Blanc, chair of the Association of British Insurers, said: “This report shows that mothers still face a huge challenge to make progress in their career when they return to work.
“We want to speed that up and the evidence shows that tackling the ‘motherhood penalty’ may be the best way to do this.
“While I have no doubt that many of the people at the top of the industry are fully committed to change, it is simply not good enough that in 2018 there are 60 per cent fewer women at board level than entry level.
“To change this we need to focus on what interventions work, not what makes us feel like we are trying. Only then will we start to see the seniority gap close.”